


Lightning

by lachatblanche



Series: Dollhouse AU [33]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Consent Issues, M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 21:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/816413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lachatblanche/pseuds/lachatblanche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik and Logan meet at last.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning

Erik froze, his every muscle locking into place and his heart hammering rabbit-fast in his chest. 

He had been caught. After all this time – after everything he had done – he had straight away gone and got caught. A cold, terrible feeling dripped its way down his spine and, Erik realised with a certain dull shock, it was the numbing coldness of despair.

‘Hands away from your sides, now,’ the stranger behind him said, and Erik reluctantly pulled his hands away from his body. Gritting his teeth, he then slowly began to raise his arms, all the while keeping his head at an angle in hopes of being able to spot his ambusher. The man, seeming to notice Erik’s pointed gaze, let out a low cluck of warning and, deliberately stepping out of arms reach, began to make his way around to Erik’s front, the gun still held out cautiously in front of him.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ the man said conversationally as he stepped into view, and Erik had to blink at the sight of the hairy, wild-looking man who seemed completely out of place within the cool elegance of the Dollhouse, ‘but it’s really not worth the risk, bub. You move your hands to that gun you have stowed there in your jacket and I shoot you. You make a move over to my gun here, and I shoot you. You pull any sudden, crazy shit that makes me even the slightest bit nervous, and – guess what – I shoot you. Get my drift?’

Erik stared at the man opposite him with barely-concealed loathing before dipping his head down in a curt nod.

‘Good,’ the hairy man growled. ‘Now then. Where’s the cavalry?’

Erik’s eyes shot up. ‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ he said stiffly, after a moment of mental debate. 

The hairy man looked impatient.

‘The cavalry,’ he growled again. ‘Your back-up. Your men. The goddamned SWAT team. Where the hell are they?’

Erik, deciding that his best chance would be to bluff, slowly allowed his lip to curl upwards in disdain, feigning a confidence that he didn’t actually feel. ‘I wouldn’t worry about that,’ he sneered, looking at the man with clear loathing. ‘You’ll find out soon enough.’ He made himself stand straighter and forced himself not to lick his lips, which were suddenly feeling terribly dry and pinched. ‘You might want to lower that gun before they get here though,’ he added as if in afterthought, hoping that his bravado was convincing. ‘You wouldn’t want anybody getting the wrong idea.’

The man did not respond immediately. He just stood there, watching Erik closely and not saying a word. Then all of a sudden, to Erik’s utter amazement, he turned away and let out a seething, vicious curse.

‘You goddamned stupid sonofabitch,’ he growled, jerking the gun in his hand violently towards Erik’s torso, ‘You goddamned _asshole_. There _is_ no damn cavalry, is there? You came here alone, didn’t you, you _stupid_ sonofabitch!’

Erik, taken aback by the sudden, incomprehensible rant, stared at the man, completely nonplussed. Unfortunately, the hairy man seemed to take this as confirmation.

‘You stupid fuck,’ he swore again. ‘I’m right, aren’t I? It’s just _you_. I stick my goddamned neck out on the line and all I get is _you_.’

Erik suddenly found his tongue again.

‘Excuse me?’ he demanded, lowering his arms and ignoring the gun in the other man’s hands. ‘What the hell are you talking about – sticking your neck out? Who the fuck are _you_?’

The hairy man turned to him, his teeth bared and his eyes flashing angrily.

‘The name’s Logan,’ he spat, looking at Erik with open dislike. ‘James Logan Howlett, and I’m the stupid sonofabitch that helped you get inside this fucking building in the first place!’

Erik went completely still. He stared at the man opposite him, unable to speak. A thousand thoughts ran through his head – who _was_ this man? Why was he helping him? What did he _mean_ , saying that he’d helped Erik? – but above all that, there was one line of thought that all but thrummed through his mind, pushing its way to the front of his brain and making all other thoughts pale into insignificance.

‘Howlett,’ he repeated dumbly, staring at the man in disbelief. ‘You’re Howlett. _You’re Charles’s Handler._ ’

There was a pause in which neither of them moved, the both of them simply staring at each other in silence. Then, all of a sudden, the gun that Logan had been gradually lowering down was suddenly whirled back up and all but rammed in Erik’s face.

‘How did you know that?’ Logan snarled, and if Erik had thought that the man looked wild before then it was nothing compared to the untamed ferocity that all but sparked from the man’s eyes now. ‘How the hell do you know who I am? Jesus, Lehnsherr, I knew you were a stalker but this just takes the fucking cake.’

Erik’s hackles had already risen in the face of Logan’s unexpected ire. Hearing the man say his name, however, was enough to make him lose whatever little cool he had left.

‘ _Me?_ ’ he hissed in outrage, causing Logan to take a step back. ‘What about _you_? How do you know my name?’ His teeth were bared menacingly and his hands were clenched into fists, and it was clear that he was barely restraining himself from lashing out. ‘How the _hell_ do you know who I am?’

Logan, whose temper seemed to have calmed somewhat in the face of Erik’s anger, didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned by the other man’s threatening demeanour. He simply stood there, watching Erik with narrow eyes, suspicion clear in his gaze. Then, after what seemed like hours, he finally stepped back and, his eyes still fixed firmly on Erik’s, he deliberately placed his gun back in its holster.

‘I’m thinking that we might need to have a bit of a talk,’ he said gruffly, regarding Erik with an even look. ‘We seem to have got a hell of a lot of crossed wires going on all over the place and we need to sort that shit out before we do anything here, you get me?’

Erik hesitated for a moment, his anger still close to the surface, before giving a stiff nod.

Logan acknowledged the movement with a nod of his own before jerking his head over to the door on his left. 

‘Come on,’ he said, turning around and showing his back to Erik in a clear – albeit reluctant – signal of trust. ‘There ain’t all that many people about right now but we’ve been making enough noise to drown out a whole herd of elephants so it’s best that we take this someplace quieter.’

Erik, who had been worried about the same thing, nodded brusquely and followed Logan as he moved towards the end of the lobby and then through the door into one of the side-rooms.

‘This here’s one of the meditation rooms,’ Logan explained as he shut the door behind them. ‘So that the Dolls can have a little quiet time, see? Me, I reckon they just fall asleep once they’re in here, but then what do I know?’ He shrugged before turning to face Erik once more and this time his expression was quietly serious. ‘So,’ he said after a moment where the two of them had just stood there, staring at each other. ‘Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? How’d you know who I am and where the hell is your goddamn back-up?’

Erik suppressed a wince at the last question, covering it up with a pointed glare. He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he really ought to open up to a complete stranger – an employee of the Dollhouse, to be precise, and _Charles’s Handler_ at that – but after a moment he relented, his shoulders relaxing minutely as he came to his decision. Reluctant as he was to explain himself, something deep and inexplicable inside told him that the man in front of him wasn’t all that he seemed; that he was – some way, somehow – trustworthy, and it was this feeling that finally motivated him to open his mouth and begin to talk.

‘Guy in the elevator,’ he said stiffly, not moving his eyes away from Logan’s. ‘He let me in – thought I worked here, like him. He wouldn’t stop talking the whole way – he’s the one that told me that you were Charles’s Handler.’ Erik shrugged. ‘That’s about it. That’s how I know who you are.’

‘Hmm,’ Logan was watching him closely. ‘And I suppose that I just _happened_ to pop up in conversation, just like that?’

Erik gritted his teeth. ‘I told him that I was Charles’s Handler,’ he muttered through tightly-clenched teeth. At Logan’s pointed look he attempted to elaborate. ‘Charles-’ he hesitated, not knowing how he was supposed to explain just who Charles was to him. ‘Charles is one of the people that I’m looking for,’ he finished quickly, lifting his chin in something close to defiance.

Logan let out a snort at that. ‘Is he now?’ he said dryly. ‘You’ve been _looking_ for him, have you? Is that officially or unofficially?’ He raised a mocking eyebrow, ignoring the murderous look that Erik sent his way. ‘I’m guessing that this also explains why you didn’t bring any back-up, huh?’ 

‘I don’t know what you are talking about,’ Erik snapped, glaring at Logan almost resentfully despite knowing that the man’s words had hit a little too close to home. ‘Why the hell are _you_ here, anyway? And what did you mean back there, about sticking your neck out? About helping me? Because – just so you know – you haven’t been all that helpful so far.’

Logan paused mid-smirk and turned to stare at Erik. A slightly puzzled expression crossed his face.

‘I’d have thought you were smarter than this,’ he said at last, sounding slightly doubtful. He cocked his head and eyed Erik again, looking faintly worried. ‘What do you mean, I haven’t been helpful? Why else are you here, bub? You got my letter, didn’t you?’

It was Erik’s turn to stare.

‘ _Your_ letter?’ he repeated, his mouth twisted in disbelief. ‘You mean it wasn’t _Ra_ -’ He cut himself off quickly, slamming his mouth shut, but Logan had unfortunately already picked up on his error.

‘It wasn’t _who_?’ he demanded, leaning forward interestedly. ‘Who were you going to say? Is there someone else? Have you been talking to someone else inside the House?’

Erik shook his head, determinedly deflecting his questions.

‘No,’ he said firmly, crossing his arms together. ‘There’s no one. No one who would help us, at any rate. I’m presuming that there is an “us”?’ he added, glancing up at Logan and raising an eyebrow. ‘If you saw fit to send me that letter, I mean. You can’t have just planned to sit back and do nothing.’

‘I _didn’t_ plan to sit back and do nothing,’ Logan growled. ‘But that was before you swanned in here without back-up like some sort of goddamn G.I. fucking Joe.’ He shook his head and scowled. ‘I mean – are you completely insane? Do you have _any_ idea what you are up against here? What were you thinking, that you’d just bust your way in here and then take the whole bastard corporation down single-handed? Are you out of your fucking mind?’

Erik scowled.

‘Fuck you,’ he said coldly. ‘I’m not planning on taking down the entire place in one night. I’m planning on taking down one _man_ – and, from what I can tell, that’s a pretty damn good place to start.’

‘Shaw,’ Logan muttered, eyeing Erik contemplatively. ‘Sebastian fucking Shaw.’ He sighed then and shook his head. ‘Well, I did what I could about security tonight but do you really think that the two of us can get past his entire fucking entourage all by ourselves?’

A slow smile began to pull at the corner of Erik’s lips.

‘So you _are_ in, then?’ he said smugly, arms still folded firmly together. ‘Good to know.’

Logan snorted and rolled his eyes.

‘Yeah, I’m in,’ he muttered, huffing out a dry laugh under his breath. ‘God knows why I am – probably got some sort of fucking death wish or something – but yeah. Count me in.’

Erik nodded, carefully suppressing any outward reactions of relief.

‘Good,’ he said shortly. ‘So now we need to plan.’

‘Yup, that sounds like a thing we ought to do,’ Logan drawled, leaning back against the wall and stretching lazily. Having cemented his alliance with Erik, he now seemed a lot more laid-back than before. ‘Plan away, Super-cop.’

Erik gave him a flat look and then promptly proceeded to ignore him.

‘Our priority is Shaw,’ he began, his brow furrowed in thought. Logan was leaning against one of the walls in an attitude of supreme unconcern but his ears were sharp and his eyes were focused. ‘And we know that he should be here in about,’ he glanced down at his watch, ‘four and a half hours.’

‘That is the time we were given,’ Logan acknowledged, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a thick cigar. Erik’s nostrils flared at the sight of it but Logan seemed to be deliberately avoiding his eyes as he lit the cigar and brought it to his mouth, inhaling a lungful of smoke with a contented growl. ‘Ah, that’s the stuff.’

‘Should you really be smoking here?’ Erik asked sharply, disapproval radiating from his every pore.

Logan shrugged.

‘Probably not,’ he said agreeably, ‘But who’s gonna tell? _You?_ ’ he snorted and took a long drag of smoke. ‘Nah, Frost’ll get over it – she always does. Besides, if I’m gonna get fired or brain-fried or whatever then I may as well go out in style. It’s not like it’ll hurt any worse. In for a penny and all that shit, am I right?’

Erik raised an eyebrow at him.

‘Brain-fried?’ he asked lightly.

‘Oh yeah, they do that here,’ Logan said, gesturing with his cigar. ‘They do a _lot_ of shit here. We’re really a couple of morons for even thinking about going up against them.’

‘And yet here we are,’ Erik murmured. He shot Logan a sudden look. ‘Who’s Frost?’

Logan let out a rough chuckle at that.

‘Ain’t that the question,’ he muttered. ‘Frost is the Director,’ he said in a louder voice, waving his cigar expansively, ‘Of the Dollhouse, I mean. Second in command from Shaw … don’t let her hear you say that, though. Lady ain’t made to be _anyone’s_ second in command.’

‘She doesn’t get on with Shaw?’ Erik asked interestedly.

‘She doesn’t get on with _anybody_ ,’ Logan corrected him. ‘Was never able to get a good read on her. Got a lot going on up here, she does,’ he gestured at his head. ‘Strange lady. Cold. Likes things just so, and god help the poor bastard who crosses her. My guess is,’ he looked out at Erik from under his thick eyebrows, ‘She’ll do whatever is in her best interests.’

‘She’ll look out for herself,’ Erik nodded in understanding. ‘She sounds like somebody who would best be avoided, I think.’

‘Which ought to be rule for life,’ Logan agreed. ‘So what next, boss-man?’

Erik thought for a moment, deliberately ignoring the sarcastic moniker.

‘The Dolls,’ he said at last. ‘We need to help the Dolls. We need to find them and free them.’

He looked up to see Logan staring straight back at him. 

‘I was wondering when you’d start on that,’ the other man murmured, and Erik found himself feeling slightly defensive, even though he didn’t know why. ‘When you’d bring the conversation round to it. Surprised it took you so long, to be honest.’

Erik frowned. ‘So long to what?’ he barked, feeling nettled.

Logan raised an eyebrow.

‘To bring the conversation round to freeing Charles, of course,’ he said simply, and Erik had to suppress the physical shudder that threatened to overwhelm him at the matter-of-fact tone in which he said it. ‘No need to lie to me, Lehnsherr. I know that he’s been on your mind all the way through this.’

Erik couldn’t bring himself to deny it.

‘Frost warned me about you, you know,’ Logan continued conversationally. ‘Said you were some kind of stalker on the look-out for Charles. That you were pretty much obsessed with him. And you know what?’ His eyes met Erik’s. ‘I kind of believe her.’

Still Erik said nothing. 

‘Thing is,’ Logan continued, his expression thoughtful, ‘You’re a cop. Maybe the only one who’s actually looking into the Dollhouse. Which, it turns out, made you the only person in the world that I could call.’ He sighed and rubbed at his face. ‘Besides,’ he added after a moment, his voice gruff, ‘It’s not like you can be blamed for your crazy-ass thing for Charles. God knows that he seems to have that effect on everyone.’

‘Even you?’ Erik asked quietly. 

Logan’s head shot up.

‘Now you listen here,’ he said sharply, ‘I don’t know what kind of screwed-up shit is going on in your head but if you’re thinking that I _ever_ -’

‘That’s not what I meant,’ Erik interrupted him, and his placid expression seemed to have something of a soothing effect on Logan as the ire quickly drained out of him. ‘I just want to know …’ There was a pause wherein Erik visibly hesitated. He swallowed once before continuing. ‘Charles,’ he rasped out, ‘is he … okay?’

Logan watched him for a moment, his face completely blank. Then he nodded.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘He’s safe.’ He paused. ‘… For now.’

Erik’s face darkened.

‘Shaw,’ he said grimly, causing Logan’s eyebrows to rise.

‘You know about that, huh?’ Logan’s voice was cool. ‘Can I ask how?’

‘You can ask,’ Erik said flatly, but didn’t continue. It was quite clear that he had no real intention of answering. 

Logan rolled his eyes.

‘Keep your secrets,’ he said, shrugging easily. ‘As long as they don’t get me killed or get my brain fried, then I couldn’t give a horse’s a-’

And that was when the door opened.


End file.
